Have you ever seen a pet lamb?" said Bobs to his mother one day.

Bobs was a little boy who was always asking questions; and if he could only get his mother to tell him a story, he was quite content. He would sit so still that he scarcely so much as winked.

"Yes," answered his mother; "I had a pet lamb for my very own when I was a little girl."

"Oh, do tell me all about it," cried Bobs. "Was it very tiny?"

So Bobs and his mother sat down in a chair by the fire, and she began,—

"A long, long time ago, when I was quite a little girl, I had a great longing to have a pet lamb.

"My father owned a farm, and although I had lots of other pets, I was not content, and still wanted a lamb for my own.

"'Very well,' said my father, 'you may have a pet lamb, but I am sure you will get tired of it and never want another.'

"But I did not believe what father said, for I thought nothing could be so nice as a little woolly lamb.

"One day we went for a picnic to a lovely valley where a beautiful waterfall leaped and dimpled in the sunlight, and then fell down, down, down hundreds of feet into the river below.

"Father and I were standing on a rock watching this waterfall and thinking how lovely it looked, when, all at once, I saw something that made me jump.

"'Look, look, father!' I cried; 'there is something lying in the pool below. What can it be?'

"'Why, I do believe it is a sheep,' said father. 'You stay just there, and I will go nearer and see.'

"'O father, it is a sheep,' I cried, 'and there is its little lamb.' And I pointed to a ledge of rock where a tiny lamb was standing nibbling at some green leaves on a tree that grew by the water-side.

"Every few moments it bleated most piteously, and looked all round for its mother.

"But never again would it hear her bleat, for there, in the deep pool at the foot of the waterfall, she was lying drowned.

"'O father,' I cried in great distress, 'what if the poor lamb should fall in too?'

"But father had gone to try to save it.

"Down, down he went, slipping and sliding on the wet rocks.

"At last he reached the lamb, and, putting it on his shoulder, he began to climb up the steep rocks to a place of safety.

"After much hard and dangerous climbing, he came back to me and said,—

"'Now, my little girl, you have got your wish at last, for here is a lamb, and you must take care of it until it is old enough to look after itself.'

"How pleased I was, although I felt very sad when I thought of the poor sheep that had fallen into the water and lost its life.

"Well, we took the lamb home, and very soon it got to know me quite well.

"It would come running to me as soon as I called, and would drink milk out of a bottle in a very funny way.

"But oh, it was a mischief; and Jane, the kitchen maid, used to be very angry when it came trotting into her kitchen on wet days and dirtied the floor with its feet.

"One day Jane had made the chickens' food all ready, and put it in a pail, and placed it outside the door to cool.

"The chickens were all waiting for their meal and feeling very hungry. Jane went to the door for the food, and to her surprise and horror she found the pail upset and not a bit of food left.

"'Bother that lamb!' cried Jane. 'It has gone and eaten up all the chickens' food.'

"And just then we saw the lamb trotting off to the field quite content.

"At last it grew to be a very big sheep—too big to come trotting into the farm kitchen, for it was so strong and bumped against Jane so much that she would often chase it out with a broom.

"Then father said it must go into the field and stay there for good.

"'I am glad,' said Jane, when she heard about it; 'I hope we shall never have another pet lamb.'

"But I did not think so, for I loved it very much.

"Long afterwards, when I went to the field, it would come running to me when I called.

"So that was how I got my pet lamb," said Bobs's mother.

"How lovely it must have been!" said Bobs. "I wish I lived in the country."